Wannabe writer

All my life. I've wanted to be a writer. And I have written two novels (one murder mystery and one historical novel). a play and a history book on astronomy. I had to actually learn some physics for the last one. It was really tough, because I had only taken one undergraduate class in the history of science. I had to learn how to write science as I was writing it. I'm not a science person. I am a liberal arts person, so that was really hard.

Now, I have MS and lots of issues with that, so I wonder if my dream will ever come true or if I will even ever get to publish what I already wrote. I do hope one day to at least publish everything on Amazon. I may never get famous, but at least it will be out there. Right now, my problem is I need help with editing and my dh is too swamped to do it. (Not that I'm asking for help in that department, because there's no rush with this.)

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Welcome to the club, Grace. Back in my first unemployment period (FIRST?!?), I spent my idle time reading a lot. A friend of mine had given me (please don't cringe!) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and I ended up collecting the complete Chronicles on my own. I found that I was pissed at the fact that only KIDS got into Narnia, and ended up writing my own novella based on C. S. Lewis's books, set just before the birth of Tirian, Narnia's last king.

At least a couple people who have read it tell me that I actually brought something to the world of Narnia and that my work was publish-worthy. MY problem is simple and two-fold:

1. I know NOTHING about how to get a book published, but more importantly,

2. Narnia and all its appurtenances are the property of the Estate of C. S. Lewis, and I'd need permission from them to use them.

[shrug] At least someone whose opinion I respect (and in one case is a published author) respects what I did. Thing is, that and $0.50 will get ya a cup of coffee.

The thing is, it's SET in Narnia, and incorporates Narnian themes and at least one Narnian character who is mentioned though never met in the original books. I don't know if it would mean as much (or work as well) if I somehow sanitized it.

I think I paid like $5 or $10 each query. I submitted my murder mystery about 30 times. I got a lot of almost takers, but like you said that's not worth much. They said my book was too risque which I thought was kind of stupid since there was no actual sex in it. Well, that was during the Puritan Bush era. Things may have changed.

My science book is finished and sort of published. It's my master's thesis. I want to add photographs before I publish it. I can buy what I need from the state archives, but they charge about $25 a photo. I'm in a tight spot right now since the prices of everything went way up.

It's not really the grammar or spelling I need edited (although that would be good, too, thanks for the offer Park), I need editing for content. I had to cut some parts out and I want to make sure everything still makes sense. From writing my thesis, I know how much work editing can be. I think I cried the day my advisor cut 11 pages. The page count is very important on a thesis.

It was so much work. It took me eight years to write. I had a guaranteed publisher and they just disappeared. It was a university press, so who knows what the politics are there. But it's right down your alley, Loren. If you're bored, I'll send it to you to read. It's probably not up there with the Narnia Chronicles though.

Hi. I've been pitching my novel to agents for over a year now and something you mentioned above set off alarm bells.... to whom were you paying $5 or $10 each query? Legitimate agents DON'T charge reading fees. There's a fantastic site called Preditors & Editors that you can use to start the research and weeding out process in your search for an agent and/or publisher. Hope this helps and may you have better luck than I have.

My mum has always said that she wanted to write a book - so for the last 20 years or so to my knowledge - but she hasn't yet written one. Recently she's had some time to pursue her idea and has joined a writing group - so she might get there yet. I came up with the idea for myself recently. Perhaps it's a 30's ambition - you get to a point where you've had enough life experience to share something useful with others? I don't know what I want to write yet - which sounds silly - but I feel that I need to say something that I'd like to share with others. I think at this stage it will be about life, the meaning of life, a sort of manual to life or a guide to happiness or some sort of something like that in the form of a novel of fiction or part autobiography. In other words I want it to contribute something useful to others - but I'm not specialist in anything very useful - other than general knowledge and personal experience - so I think I'm going to have to work hard researching to get something really worth while reading together...